Belong
by Quiet Complicity
Summary: Same universe, slight twist. Caroline Williams has suffered a crippling loss, but what happens when she forms a tentative friendship with junior Edward Cullen? A story of friendship and love, of bonds between us and we do for them. Bella later. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

((AN: Just something I did one night. What if someone came into Edward's life before Bella? And I'm not saying there won't be Bella because there will be.))

Her sneakers.

They were white, with blue stripes, and the bottoms were black. There was a little blue Nike sign on the top of them. They were safe, and if she just kept looking at them, maybe she wouldn't have to see everyone staring at her, everyone looking at her like she was a time bomb who was just ticking away the seconds until she'd go crazy, rip off her clothes and start hurling lunchroom spaghetti at everyone, or maybe just stand up and leave and not come back.

Last year, first day of Freshman year, he'd sat with her at lunch. They were best friends, and it had been what they'd done in middle school, only that year it had been something more. Every day they'd sat together, unless the other was sick. Toward the end of the year, his absences had been more frequent.

But this year, she was alone. Alone, and he wouldn't be coming back tomorrow or the next day. So she sat, picking at her spaghetti and not eating. Soon the bell would ring and she could go to English class—the class they'd wanted to take together, when they planned their schedules together at the end of last year. She'd have been teasing him about reading Pride and Prejudice, and then he'd have poked her ribs in that way he always did, affectionate but not gooey.

*

She could feel the teacher looking at her with sympathy eyes as soon as she walked into the room. Tables were arranged in a u-shape, with the open side at the whiteboard, and everyone else was seated already.

"Miss Williams, please take your seat next to Mr. Cullen…"

The teacher, a youngish woman who was thin and timid-looking, was clearly skirting around her. It was as Caroline had expected—all of her teachers had been warned.

_Grieving. Emotional. Depressed._

They all meant the same thing: _watch out._

The seat she'd been directed to—the only open one in the room—was next to a boy who looked like he could have easily been a junior. The seat was on the end of the row of tables, and Caroline swept a curtain of ash-blonde hair between her and her neighbor, so that she wouldn't have to talk to him. She didn't want anyone talking to her out of pity.

It wasn't to be, however, as the teacher's first order of business was to have everyone introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them. Caroline turned to him, and her jaw almost dropped in shock. He was _gorgeous_. Not in that beefy all-American way, in the cover-of-a-magazine way that you always were convinced was airbrushed.

Evidently not. She extended a small, pale hand.

"Caroline Williams."

"Edward Cullen." He didn't take her hand, so she withdrew it. He was looking at her oddly, as if she'd forgotten to put pants on or something. She flushed self-consciously and turned to the syllabus that had been laid in front of her, putting the hair between them again. Another one looking at her like she was crazy.

She dragged her finger down the list of books they'd be reading, but instead of smiling like she'd have done last year, she exhaled defeatedly. The list never changed; he'd gotten it from his older sister and they'd looked it over together freshman year, laughing at some titles, wondering at others, cringing at the rest.

"I'd like everyone to stand up individually, give us your name and one thing about yourself." The teacher said brightly, still eyeing Caroline warily. They made the way around the room, even though nearly all of them had known each other since preschool. Neighbor boy stood and informed them that he'd moved there from Alaska, and that he was a junior. Caroline even spotted Jennifer and Becky eyeing him like he was a piece of meat, which almost made her smile to herself.

She stood, her chair making scraping sounds on the linoleum.

"Caroline Williams, and no, I'm not going to flip on the crazy switch and slice my wrists with the paper cutter." She said flatly, before sitting back down. Everyone stared in horror—everyone, that is, except for neighbor boy. He was looking at the table, and he was smiling. Weird kid.

"L-let's just get on with class, shall we?" Suggested the teacher, looking as if she was afraid Caroline might eat her. Caroline looked evenly back. Neighbor boy was still smiling that weird little smile.

Actual class commenced with the passing out of books and review of the syllabus, reminding them of course expectations and all that good first-day stuff. They'd all heard it at least five times today, and Caroline was thankful when the bell rang for the next period. Photo. She was good at photo, and now that she had taken Art 1 she could take the course, photo 2 next semester, and AP the year after.

It wasn't until she was halfway to the art rooms that she realized neighbor boy, Edward, was following her. Rolling her eyes, she walked faster, but felt stupid once she realized at roll call that he was in her class.

The photo teacher, Ms. Portman, didn't seem to have gotten the memo about the Sensitive Case in her class, of if she had she hadn't paid any mind, and that pleased Caroline. She also didn't believe in talking over doing, so today she was setting them loose with digital cameras to take pictures of whatever they found on campus.

"The class this semester is bigger than I'm used to, and I don't have enough cameras for you all to have one, so Maria and Allison, you'll be pairing up, along with Caroline and Edward…"

Caroline practically groaned. _Really_?

Caroline and Edward both moved to take their camera as Ms. Portman held it out. Each glanced at the other for a long second, until Edward gestured for Caroline to take it. Caroline nodded for reasons she hadn't quite identified (thanks, perhaps) and began moving out of the classroom.

"Just as long as you're back by the end of the day, folks!" Were Ms. Portman's cheery parting words.

They walked in silence until they were outside. It was overcast, but warm, and the ground was spongy but not muddy under her sneakers. She tensed in surprise when he spoke.

"You live on Treegap, over by the old bridge, right?"

She eyed him suspiciously. "Yeah. Why?"

"I live on Brookside."

So they were neighbors in more than just English Literature.

"Your parents are holding a welcoming party for us." He continued, as if prompting her to speak.

"Cool." Was the only response she gave, as she snapped a picture of an upside-down marigold head that had snapped off its stem. "When'd you move in?"

"About two weeks ago."

She vaguely remembered her parents saying something about a new family moving in.

"So you're a junior."

He nodded in the affirmative as she glanced up from where she'd been taking snaps of a line of ants.

"Then why're you in English lit?"

"My school in Alaska had us taking American last year."

She nodded and handed him the camera so he could take some. "Do you have any siblings?" He asked.

Caroline shook her head. "Just me. You?"

"Four." She blinked, looking at him strangely. "I'm adopted," he explained.

"Oh." She said softly, nodding. It was the first normal conversation she'd had in months.

The rest of the bell passed largely in silence. Once in a while they'd hand off the camera and exchange a few words, but she appreciated that he wasn't trying to get her to "connect," or whatever it was the counselors had told her she needed to do.

"Alright, folks," chirped Ms. Portman once everyone was back in the classroom, "I'll just upload these to the photo computers, and you'll be working with them tomorrow. Have a good afternoon!"

They got out five minutes early. Half an hour later, Caroline was still sitting on the curb, waiting for her mom to get there. IPod playing, homework sitting in her backpack untouched. For not the first time, she wished her mother would just buy her a cellphone already—not that she had anyone to call, but it'd be nice to know when her mother was working later than expected. She slung the bag over her shoulder and was preparing to wait in the library when neighbor boy—Edward, who didn't look at her like she was crazy—stopped as if expecting to speak with her. She blinked expectantly and he looked at her funny for a second.

"Do you have a ride?" He asked, and she got the feeling he was subtly offering.

"My mom'll be here eventually."

"Your house is on the way back to mine." There it was. Why he was so insistent she had no idea.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "You drive?"

"I'm pretty old for a Junior."

She nodded, mulling it over. "I guess. Thanks."

So it was that somehow, without ever actually offering, he'd gotten her into his shiny silver Volvo, headed at way over the speed limit toward their houses, listening to classical music. They didn't talk, like in photo. She just looked at her sneakers. They were safe.


	2. Chapter 2

((AN: long-ass. Had to play around with details to make the bio thing make sense, but don't worry, Bella will come into play later in the year. On that note, if this chapter doesn't get any positive response then I'll discontinue the story. Negative response seems to be the only kind I've gotten. I do intend to have Edward fall for Bella, and Caroline won't be all KABLAM In love with him within two paragraphs, so don't get your panties all in a bunch. Platonic friendship is possible between guys and girls, in case you hadn't noticed.))

The next day in biology, Caroline walked in and realized Edward was sitting there. And somehow he'd orchestrated it so that the only free seat was next to him. She blinked. Had he been registered in this class yesterday? She slid into the chair, looking questioningly up at him.

"Were you in this class yesterday?"

"I switched in from regular. I took Chem last year and I want to take an AP science course."

She looked vaguely suspicious. "You did a lot of stuff backward in Alaska, huh?"

He nodded, looking ahead Mr. Banner came in with that day's lab.

"I know you guys are AP, but I figured as we're studying calorimetry…" He gave out the lab handouts as she spoke, and everyone groaned upon seeing that they would be melting ice. Edward just smiled that weird little smile of his. Caroline just raised an eyebrow and brought her notebook over to the lab table. Edward had already gone to get the hot plate.

It wasn't exactly intellect-intensive, melting ice and recording temperature, prompting her to begin doodling in the margins. A male profile, with a straight nose, eyebrows that hung over just a little too far, lips that looked ready to smile in an instant, accompanied by that one dimple…

"You draw?"

She looked up, startled. "Sort of." She looked back and realized who it was she'd been drawing, glared at the page, and erased the graphite with such a vengeance that she ripped the page. "God damn…"

Edward flinched.

"… I take it you don't curse." She said. It wasn't a question.

"Not really."

"I'll keep that in mind." He was the one who'd taught her to curse. He'd laughed at the way she'd wrinkled her nose whenever he'd say words she didn't like, and eventually taught her to use them. She looked down at the ripped page, which appeared dejected and smudgy. She sighed. "I should probably make another data table. Mr. Banner doesn't like ripped edges."

In the low chatter of the classroom, nobody except Caroline heard him say, "Who were you drawing?"

She froze, swallowing and curling her fingers around the side of the desk. "Just someone I used to know."

He didn't press it, and she was grateful.

*

He gave her a ride home once more that week, on Friday. She was becoming used to spending nearly half of her day with him, more or less depending upon whether it was a lab day. Their conversations were boring, banal, on topics that she usually didn't care about, but conversation with a person at all was a nice change from glaring as the school counselor asked her questions.

His siblings had been walking out with him this time. She couldn't help but notice the way they all looked like him, with the pale skin and funny-colored eyes with purple splotches under them. Hadn't he said he was adopted?

The short one with the black hair—Alice, she'd learned, when he'd told her all of their names during the lab on Thursday—had given a little mile and a wave. The blonde girl, Rosalie, had blatantly looked her over as she climbed into the Jeep's driver seat. Her twin, Jasper, didn't appear to see anything but Alice, and the big one, Emmett, gave her some kind of bro-nod that she couldn't even begin to decipher, despite His attempts to explain it two summers before.

When they had arrived at her house and she was gathering her things into her bag, he got out of the car to open the door for her. She looked up in surprise, but he didn't seem fazed. "So I'll see you tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Your parents' party." He clarified. She didn't even really talk to him half of the time, it was more he talked, and she made faces which he always managed to decipher.

"Oh. Yeah. That." She looked distinctively uncomfortable at the whole prospect as she stood, moving around to the popped trunk to grab her backpack. "I'm not really a fan of parties." Social encounters as a whole, really. She hadn't even hung out with anyone who wasn't her mother or the school counselor since the funeral.

"It _is_ in your house, you know."

There he went with that subtle coercion thing, the one that she always noticed but always gave in to, even if it was just which lab table they'd work at.

"Fine. I guess I'll go." He gave her a charming smile, to which she couldn't help but respond with a small one of her own. "Only if you promise not to mention _Tess of the d'Urbervilles_ when she asks about our reading list. She thinks it's anti-progressive." There was even a lightness in her tone which suggested teasing.

He got the message, laying one pale hand over his heart. "I solemnly swear, Tess will not be mentioned."

"See you then."

*

Her mother had forced her out of the safe haven of her sneakers, and into a pair of black flats. Also a black skirt, and a blue sweater and headband that made her look like the Lily-Pulitzer-Sunday-Best-For-Church-Choir daughter that Caroline knew her mother craved. She bore it quietly, not particularly upset over the clothes. It was just clothing, and she admittedly liked these black flats. She hadn't been able to find them the morning of the funeral, she remembered. But she was glad, because that meant she could still wear them now without seeing a fresh grave just feet away every time she looked at them. It was that way with her heels, which she'd worn. They'd sunk into the wet ground every step she'd taken, and she remembered thinking that He'd have laughed at her.

Neighbors and friends milled about, tittering in excitement over new residents. It wasn't often their tiny neighborhood had any news.

The Cullens arrived at five-thirty for cocktails, and Caroline was brought to the front room to greet everyone. The father, Dr. Cullen, looked way too young to be the natural father of any of them—the adoption story didn't seem too weird, but he too had the skin and the eyes. His wife, Esme, greeted her mother enthusiastically (evidently they'd met at the furniture store in town), and the four older children nodded and politely thanked Mrs. Williams for thinking of them. Edward came last, and this time when her small hand was extended, he took it.

"Lovely to see you again, Caroline." God, he was always so _polite_. Her mother would have a fit over his manners.

Sure enough, Emily Williams came sweeping over, beaming. "You two have met?"

"We're lab partners, Mrs. Williams, and we also have English and Photo together." Edward responded, turning a small smile toward her mother. Caroline practically smirked.

"Well how nice! It's so wonderful to see Caroline making friends, especially with you being new in town… you just make yourself at home!"

Now Caroline really was smirking. Edward raised an eyebrow. Evidently, it was just as obvious to him that her mother was already planning a wedding and naming their children. "She kind of does that."

"I get the impression she considers you somewhat antisocial?" He asked as they moved toward the couch, where he waited for her to sit first.

"In case the gossipmongers haven't told you yet, I sort of am." She said plainly. "She'd be thrilled if I were talking to guys with more piercings than morals as long as I was talking to someone my own age. And I mean you're like her fantasy son-in-law."

He chuckled, and she decided she liked the sound. "How so?"

"Hmm." She drew back, stroking an imaginary goatee and looking at him critically. "Well first, there's the fact that your father is a doctor, which call her snobby she's totally impressed by, and then there's the fact that you've got better manners than any teenager she's ever experienced, and of course you're wearing a Polo." She said decisively, nodding to punctuate.

"Good to know my sartorial choices have met with approval."

Caroline then realized she was being watched. It was Edward's sister, the blonde named Rosalie, and she wasn't looking too pleased. Caroline flushed and looked at the flats, unsure how she'd angered the girl but upset she'd done so.

From her shoes, her eyes wandered to the houseplant in the corner of the room, the one her mother never could quite keep green. Edward's mother was standing by the plant, talking to Emily… Caroline peered closer. She could have sworn she'd seen Esme dump her Cosmopolitan into the soil.

Her musings were interrupted by a noise that sounded—just barely—like her name, called in a boisterous alto from across the room.

"Oh Lord, Mrs. Fillard is here." She groaned, and had suddenly turned into the reserved, shy thing she'd been twenty minutes ago, instead of the 15-year-old who'd been making jokes.

A bosomy, middle-aged woman wearing entirely too much makeup traipsed over to Caroline, grabbing her and pulling her up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Caroline Williams, you teenager, you, I haven't seen you in ages! When was the last time you came to book club with your mom, hmm? I know we were just itching to ask you what you thought about _Angels and Demons_…"

Caroline smiled weakly. "Nice to see you too, Mrs. Fillmore."

"Where've you been spending all your time, dearest? It can't be in that room of yours, I know you like your books but you have to ha… well _hello_!"

And now Mrs. Fillmore had noticed Edward and was smiling that huge, froglike smile she always did when meeting someone.

"Pardon me for not introducing myself, but you seemed engrossed in greeting Caroline. I'm Edward Cullen." He held both hands behind his back and nodded politely to Mrs. Fillmore, who was, if Caroline wasn't mistaken, about to do the same thing as Emily had. Gush.

"Edith Fillmore, but please, Edie is _fine_. It's so _nice_ to see little Caro here making friends, I've told her ever since that funeral that she needs to get out more…"

Caroline felt as if she might be ill. It was unlikely, but she'd been holding out hope that nobody would mention Him tonight.

"…I mean ever since that Saunders boy, she's been absolutely a hermit, never comes out at all…"

Oh God. She was going to talk about Will. She was going to talk about Will and how Caroline had reacted to his death, and then Edward would really think she was crazy, and she'd actually have no friends. Not that she and Edward were friends, but he'd join the ranks of the people who stared at her like she might pull a gun.

Except she heard a velvety voice interrupt the grating one, stopping Mrs. Fillmore from continuing the story. Edward's voice.

"Yes, we're lab partners. That's how my parents met, actually; they were lab partners in medical school."

"Really? How _romantic_! What a charming story, do tell."

"I could introduce you to them, if you like. If Mrs. Williams hasn't already."

"Oh, Emily, she could forget her head was on her shoulders if someone didn't remind her, I always said she was a flighty one…"

Mrs. Fillmore's affectionate rebuke of her mother faded into the noise of the party guests. Caroline watched in shock as Edward led Mrs. Fillmore toward his parents. He turned and met her eyes, giving a quick nod and mouthing, '_you're welcome_.'

She hadn't even realized that she'd been looking at him in thanks.


End file.
